Al-Khairan residents ‘bemoan’ neglect, lack of basic services
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KUWAIT CITY, Aug 9: Year after year the neglect snowballs, and an area that was built on the side of the road leading to the end of the southern border of the country, called the residential city of Al-Khairan now wears an abandoned look, reports Al-Rai daily. For nearly ten years, this area has been neglected and people living there suffer due to lack of services, lack of access to education, health and public services. This is what the head of the volunteer committee for the people of the area Anwar Al-Zamil told Al-Rai, who confirmed that the city has not completed its project which had kicked off 10 years ago and the government has forgotten the area exists
Bordered
He explained that the area is no more than 20 kilometers away from the Nuwaiseeb border center, and it is bordered to the east by King Fahd Road and to the north, west and south by a barren desert. However, the Al-Khairan housing project disappeared from the “residential” schedule, and the door was shut in the face of those who sacrificed to be among the first residents in this new city. Al-Zamil indicated that after the Public Authority for Housing Welfare distributed a limited number of plots to the residents of Al-Khairan, the city’s file was closed for unknown reasons, and the PAHW moved to reconstruct the city of Al-Mutla’a and south Sabah Al-Ahmad, and now the city of South Sa’ad Al-Abdullah, and the file of Al-Khairan continues to collect dust, with a complete and comprehensive deficiency in services.
Concerns
He said, “With the formation of a new government headed by Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nawaf, we make known our concerns and hope that our problem in the residential city of Al-Khairan will be addressed, and we hope that His Highness will harness efforts to address the problems of the city’s residents and operate government facilities, the most important of which are the schools.” He added: “We suffered a lot, until a clinic was opened in the city to provide health care, but we have suffered for years from the Ministry of Education ignoring the operation of schools. He went on to say, “We are approaching a new academic year and a new struggle with schools, so why does the Ministry of Education not operate Al-Khairan schools, even in the form of joint schools on a temporary basis, to relieve the people of the city and meet their need for education? The distances are long and the road is dangerous for our children as they commute to other areas.”
He continued saying, “The city was distributed based on promises from the Minister of Housing at the time, and we trusted his statements, but what was distributed from the city was only 3 parcels of land, and then the project was overlooked. The officials did not explain the reasons why the distribution of the rest of the city’s plots did not continue despite the completion of all plans for the city.” He pointed out that the city of Al-Khairan was established in the middle of the desert, and the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Resources did not pay attention to the projects of afforestation in the area and the planting of a tree belt as a barrier to wind and dust that buries the area throughout the year at a time when it can take advantage of the treated water for planting and afforestation of the city.
Affected
He added, “But the city’s neglect affected all facilities, not just landscaping. There is no serious government agency in dealing with the city’s situation because the distributions stopped there and the project was deliberately disrupted, and they did not take care of us as citizens and we trusted government promises which deliberately disregarded for our demands.” He pointed out that “a city without schools cannot be a residential city, and a large number of people closed their homes and rallied because there are no services, no schools, or a cooperative society, so how can families live in such conditions?” He stated that “the biggest problem is that there are no neighboring areas in order to benefit from their services. The nearest city to us is Umm al-Hayman, which is 45 minutes away from Al-Khairan. We must open Al-Khairan schools this year for the residents of the area and other services.”
Distributing
Al-Zamil explained that the residential city of Al-Khairan was planned to be a center for the southern regions of the country, by distributing 36,000 housing units to citizens who deserve housing care, but the scheme stopped suddenly, and 300 citizens became victims of neglect, they were housed in a barren desert near the southern border, with 850 from Al-Zour (from the Saudi residents of Al-Zour who were previously compensated), services were cut off and the public facilities were buried, and its residents remained dependent on other areas for all their needs. Al-Zamil indicated that on June 28, 2021, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Ali Al-Yaqoub, visited the city of Al-Khairan and announced the settlement of the file of the four schools in the city of Al-Khairan and announced the operation of the schools last year, and requested a statistic on the number of students, who at that time numbered 500 students in various educational levels, and announced to the people of the city that their schools will be opened at the beginning of the new year, but none of that has happened, and the promises are still unfulfilled.
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